Biology subjects

della Penna, F.

Publications and source records attributed to della Penna, F..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Breathing strategies to influence perception: Evidence for interoceptive and exteroceptive active sensing

Recent research indicates that humans continuously and automatically modulate their breathing to temporally align exteroceptive stimuli with specific phases of the respiratory cycle. This process has been interpreted as a form of active sensing and is associated with faster responses and improved perceptual accuracy. While converging evidence suggests that respiration also shapes interoceptive processing at both neural and behavioural levels, it remains unclear whether individuals actively adjust their breathing to optimize interoceptive performance. In this study, we examined whether healthy participants modulated their respiration during an interoceptive (heartbeat discrimination) and an exteroceptive (tactile detection) task. We analysed respiration both in terms of time-locked activity and inter-trial phase coherence relative to stimulus onset and assessed their relationship with perceptual accuracy. Our results demonstrated that participants systematically adjust their breathing in both amplitude and phase, synchronizing respiration to the anticipated (i.e., cued) onset of stimuli in both tasks. Crucially, task performance was enhanced during exhalation compared to inhalation, suggesting that respiratory modulation supports the perception of both interoceptive and exteroceptive signals. Significance statementThis study reveals that humans not only synchronize their breathing to anticipated external and internal stimuli, but also perform better when perceiving them during exhalation. By showing that respiration is modulated in both interoceptive and exteroceptive contexts, our findings extend the concept of active sensing to internal bodily awareness. This has important implications for understanding the dynamic interplay between physiology and perception and may guide interventions aimed at improving clinical outcomes in conditions where interoception is disrupted.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Cardio-respiratory interactions in interoceptive perception: The role of heartbeat-modulated cortical oscillations

The cardiovascular and respiratory systems are anatomically and functionally integrated within the cardio-respiratory system. This close connection suggests that breathing continuously shapes cardiac interoceptive perception. Previously, we demonstrated cardio-respiratory interoceptive interactions in the heartbeat-evoked potential, a neural marker of cortical processing of cardiac signals. Specifically, we observed enhanced late heartbeat-evoked potential positivity and greater interoceptive accuracy during exhalation compared to inhalation in participants engaged in cardiac interoceptive tasks. Here, we extended these findings to the time-frequency domain by reanalysing our previous dataset. We investigated heartbeat-modulated cortical oscillations, examining power, inter-trial coherence, and functional connectivity across the respiratory cycle at rest, during a cardiac interoceptive task (heartbeat counting), and an exteroceptive control task (cardiac-tone counting). Results revealed that during the heartbeat counting task, late heartbeat-related power, inter-trial coherence, and functional connectivity increased during exhalation compared to inhalation, particularly in the alpha and theta frequency bands. These effects were primarily localized to right fronto-centro-parietal electrodes. Furthermore, we identified interactive relationships between heartbeat-evoked potential and heartbeat-modulated cortical oscillations in the alpha band that predicted interoceptive accuracy. These relationships were independent of cardiac physiology and were absent in the exteroceptive task. We proposed a model of cardio-respiratory interactions within the framework of interoceptive predictive coding, suggesting that these interactions occur at multiple levels of the interoceptive hierarchy: peripheral, brainstem, and cortical. Our interpretation highlights the role of heartbeat-related alpha-band modulations in enhancing the precision-weighting of cardiac prediction errors, thereby facilitating attentional allocation to interoceptive signals and the suppression of task-irrelevant distractors, particularly during exhalation.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

The interplay between focus of attention, respiratory phases, and the Heartbeat Evoked Potential

The Heartbeat Evoked Potential (HEP) is an EEG fluctuation that reflects the cortical processing of cardiac signals. HEP amplitude increases during various tasks involving cardiac interoception. Recent research has also indicated that HEP amplitude and cardiac interoceptive accuracy are higher during exhalation compared to inhalation. This difference may be due to the suppression of heartbeat-related sensations during inhalation and the amplification of sensations during exhalation through attentional mechanisms. Despite significant advancements in HEP research, the interactions between the HEP, interoceptive attention, and respiration are still unclear. In this study, we developed a novel experimental paradigm to investigate the relationship between HEP amplitude and respiratory phases during tasks that involve attention to cardiac interoception, non-cardiac interoception (specifically, respiration), and exteroceptive stimuli. The tasks included the Heartbeat Counting Task and the Breath Counting Task as interoceptive tasks, as well as the Cardiac-Tone Counting Task and the Breath-Tone Counting Task as exteroceptive tasks. Results demonstrated significant increases in HEP amplitude during the Heartbeat Counting Task compared to the Cardiac-Tone Counting Task and the Breath Counting Task, mostly observed over fronto-central electrodes in a late time-window. Notably, the amplitude increases during the Heartbeat Counting Task were primarily driven by HEPs recorded during exhalation, while inhalation had minimal impact. These findings align with the predictive coding model of interoceptive perception, suggesting that HEP amplitude reflects a precision-weighting process of prediction errors related to cardiac sensations that is specifically influenced by attention directed toward the heart. Furthermore, our findings emphasize the crucial role of exhalation in this precision-weighting process. These results may have considerable implications for the development of respiratory interventions to fine-tune cardiac interoception.

neuroscience↗